Ten Pieces of Inspiration #123

Each week, I highlight ten things each week that inspired me to greater financial, personal, and professional success. Hopefully, they will inspire you as well.

1. Abraham Lincoln on friendship

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” – Abraham Lincoln

People who politically disagree with you are not evil. They are not your enemies. They are people who often want the same end goal as you do but just see a different path to getting there. By casting them as “evil,” you take yourself out of the conversation and out of the decision-making process.

2. Chess

I play board games with my children many days after school. It’s a great way to bond with them and get them to have some very interesting conversations about their life.

Thanks to Martin Lopatka for the picture.

3. Martin Luther on looking ahead

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther

No one can accurately see the future, but we can take actions today that are certain to make the future a brighter place.

4. April showers

This has been an incredibly wet month – and a cold one, too. Rivers have been running high and it’s been challenging to find time to get outside where everything isn’t drenched.

Thanks to ginny for the image.

5. Soren Kierkegaard on understanding life

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Soren Kierkegaard

That’s why we must mine our past for clues as to how to live our lives better today and tomorrow.

6. Albert Einstein on following your own path

“The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.” – Albert Einstein

Follow your own path. Don’t worry too much about the path that others around you are following.

“The children almost broken by the world become the adults most likely to change it.” – Frank Warren

I take this to mean that you need to make sure your children face challenges and that you don’t solve all of their problems. Sometimes, your children need to lose. Sometimes, your children need to fail. That way, they know how to deal with it and come back from adversity. If you don’t teach them that lesson, they won’t deal with failures and setbacks in adulthood very well.

Books worth budgeting for

My new book, The Simple Dollar: How One Man Wiped Out His Debts and Achieved the Life of His Dreams, is available in bookstores now. Check out some of the life-changing experiences the book has given readers!

Check out my book, 365 Ways to Live Cheap, available in bookstores everywhere! It's filled with 365 great tactics you can apply to your personal finances, from frugal tips to great ideas for managing your money.